Study on Tacit Knowledge Identification of Independent Documentary Film Directors

Transcription

1 Study on Tacit Knowledge Identification of Independent Documentary Film Directors Ming-Shu Yuan Associate Professor Graduate Program and Department of Information and Communications Shih Hsin University Yu Fu Research Assistant Graduate Program and Department of Information and Communications Shih Hsin University Introduction This study follows-up on prior research, to establish a definition of implicit embedded or tacit knowledge, then to explore in-depth interviews with established independent documentary film directors to identify their independent individual tacit knowledge, and discuss different creative genre directors varying individual tacit knowledge. Individual tacit knowledge has been widely explored in the literature, though few empirical studies have explored the subject (Ambrosini & Bowman, 2001). This study classifies four types of tacit knowledge, and considers the dimensions of tacit knowledge present through asking has it been spoken?, is it speakable?, and the degree of difficulty in speak-ability (see Figure 1). Figure 1 Conceptual Map of This Study s Tacit Knowledge Categories This study explores the following questions: 1. What are the category levels for individual tacit knowledge? 2. How can individual tacit knowledge be identified and verified? 3. We are attempting to empirically define this study s individual tacit knowledge term categorization and identification methods. Research Method Directors were selected as research subjects because they are key persons of the origin of thoughts, story structure, and presentation of documentary films as whole. This study invited outstanding independent documentary film directors from a variety of fields, discussing the individual tacit knowledge of each of the 8 directors. The interviews were conducted according to semi-structured in-depth interviews, focusing on only two of their respective works, to elicit the director s creative processes and concepts, relying mostly on storytelling techniques to recall their documentary filmmaking process, and then deploying the critical incident technique to inquire of any particularly important experiences and concepts. Research Result The study sought to elicit the categorization for individual tacit knowledge along the spectrum of communicability through an empirical verification process, facilitating an integrated elicitation of individual tacit knowledge, with the following significant findings: 1. Individual tacit knowledge may be classified into five categories (see figure 2), among which the Close to Embodied Knowledge is a unique finding of this study. Since such Embodied Knowledge is acquired only through doing, it cannot be expressed in spoken language, so it was anticipated that the contents of the empirical interviewing process would lack such knowledge; but this study considers it is still possible to elicit exposure to Embodied Knowledge, which can then be deemed empirically valid, as Close to Embodied Knowledge. Elicitation of a subject matter expert s Close to Embodied Knowledge, requires not only persistent reliance on an efficacious method and proper questions, but also establishment of good interaction

2 paradox for the implicit knowledge. Therefore, determining simply whether knowledge has been spoken or encoded does not bear particular significance for evaluating the value of the knowledge. To the contrary, the knowledge s degree of difficulty in speaking may serve as a clearer indicator for tacit knowledge. Conclusion Figure 2 The Five Categories of Individual Tacit Knowledge (*presents this study s new contribution to tacit knowledge) 2. Use of critical incident techniques is efficacious for facilitating interviewees focus on their important implicit knowledge. Additionally, focusing on interviewees works as the core structure for the interviewing process facilitates easier elicitation of uniquely individual tacit and implicit knowledge, such that questions relating to production processes serve to elicit that common body of tacit or implicit knowledge. 3. The degree of difficulty in speech-ability for knowledge, may serve as an indicator for effectively identifying the degree of tacit knowledge. But the inseparability of tacit knowledge which may be difficult to speak and speak-able, or the interdependence of tacit and explicit knowledge, may mean a deliberate distinction will lead to incoherency among the knowledge systems. Difficult to speak tacit knowledge is highly varied, and composes the largest discourse content in this study, including the director s creative expressions, concepts, values, production process experiences and techniques. In comparison, speak-able tacit knowledge is relatively harder to empirically distinguish, and does not appear significantly different from the tacit knowledge as designed in this study. 4. There are operational definition difficulties posed by the standards for distinguishing has it been spoken and difficulty in degree of speech-ability - as knowledge which is difficult to speak may not also be that which has been spoken, resulting in an explicit This study considered categorizing the levels of tacit knowledge by enquiring has it been spoken?, is it speak-able?, and the degree of difficulty in speak-ability, as a means to clarifying the categorization for tacit knowledge. Through reliance on guidance from their repertoire of works, critical incidence techniques and causal mapping methods, to empirically identify director s individual tacit knowledge, further evincing, how tacit knowledge indeed has different degrees of categorization, while individual knowledge which is difficult to speak about, is likely to be much more likely to have a high degree of tacitness. This study also later explored tacit knowledge, and the knowledge types of each director as expressing their individual knowledge, while also integrating and analyzing the common and unique aspects of the knowledge contents, allowing a discussion of the relations among these and their documentary filmmaking styles. Finally, this study s tacit knowledge empirical identification methods can be used as referents in determining the degree of tacitness and values in other subject matter experts individual knowledge. References Ambrosini, V., & Bowman, C. (2001). Tacit knowledge: some suggestions for operationalization. Journal of Management Studies, 38(6), Burton, J. (1990). The social documentary in Latin America. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, Digital Research Library. Castillo, J. (2002). A note on the concept of tacit knowledge. Journal of Management Inquiry, 11, Chang, Cher-Wei & Yuan, Ming-Shu. (2008). The Study of Tacit Knowledge in Independent Documentary Film Production. Journal of Library and Information Science, 34(2), [Text in

3 Chen, Chia-En. (2009). Ying xiang kai mai la-- tai wan ji lu pian zou xiang guo ji ying tan [Cinematography in action: Taiwanese documentaries in the world stage]. Shu Xiang Yuan Chuan, 70, [Text in Chen, Ru-Shou. (2002). Ji lu pian: ji shen me? lu shen me? you shi shen me pian [The deconstruction of the semiotics of documentaries]. Dian Ying Xin Shang, 20(3), [Text in Chiu, Kuei-Fen. (2003). Ya zhou xing tai wan xing yu tai wan wai wen xue men yan jiu: cong ji lu pian tan quan qiu hua shi dai wen hua yi zhi de zhan yan yu kang ju [The Asian vs. Taiwanese characters in the study of literatry study: the otherness and resistence in documentary film making in the era of globalization]. In Department of Languages and Literatures, National Chung Hsing University (Ed.), Guo ke hui wai wen xue men ba shi liu dao jiu shi nian du yan jiu cheng guo lun wen [The proceeding of National Science Council foreign literature study workshop](pp ). Taichung, Taiwan: Bookman Books Ltd. [Text in Collins, H. M. (1993). The structure of knowledge. Social Research, 60(1), Cui, Yuying. (2005). Ji lu pian dao yan de xian chang gong ke [The craft of documentary director on the scene]. Xin Wen Shi Jian, 5, 42. [Text in Gourlay, S. (2002, April). Tacit knowledge, tacit knowing, or behaving? In 3rd European Organizational Knowledge, Learning and Capabilities Conference. Athens, Greece. Gourlay, S. (2004, April). Tacit knowledge: the variety of meanings in empirical research. In Proceedings of the 5th European Organizational Knowledge, Learning and Capabilities conference. Innsbruck, Austria. Gourlay, S. (2006). Towards conceptual clarity concerning 'tacit knowledge': a review of empirical studies. Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 4(1), Handyman, G. (2003). A view outside the mainstream. American Libraries, 34(10), Horvath, J. A., Williams, W. M., Forsythe, G. B., Sweeney, P. J., Sternberg, R. J., McNally, J. A., & Wattendorf, J. (1994). Tacit knowledge in military leadership: A review of the literature (Technical report 1017). Alexandria VA: United States Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. Lam, A. (2000). Tacit Knowledge, Organizational Learning and Societal Institutions: An Integrated Framework. Organizational Studies, 21(3), Lee, Daw-Ming. (2000). Zai yang tai shang yan jiang de dian ying gong zuo zhe-- Jian tan wo pai she hui yun dong ji lu pian de jing yan [A film maker on a soap box: a personal recollection of making social movement documentaries]. In Daw-Ming Lee (Ed.), Taiwan ji lu pian yan jiu shu mu yu wen xian xuan ji-xia (Ji lu pian yu she hui yun dong ce)[research bibliographies and collections of Taiwanese documentaries](documentaries and social movement](pp ). Taipei, Taiwan: The Council for Cultural Affairs. [Text in Lee, Daw-Ming. (2002). Tai wan ji lu pian de mei xue wen ti--xie zai ji lu pian mei xue guo ji yan tao hui zhi qian [The asthetics of Taiwanese documentaries: a preface to the international conference on the asthestics of documentaries]. Dian Ying Xin Shang, 113, [Text in Lee, Daw-Ming. (2004). Zhuan dong de she ying ji--ji lu pian zai tai wan de fa zhan [Cinematography in action: the development of documentaries in Taiwan]. Windows of Culture, 67, [Text in Lee, Daw-Ming. (2008). Li shi ji yi zai xian yu ji lu pian (Ce hua ren) [Histories, memories, represenations and documentaries ]. Taichung, Taiwan: National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. [Text in Li, M., & Gao, F. (2003). Why Nonaka highlights tacit knowledge: a critical review. Journal of Knowledge Management, 7(4), Li, Yu & Li, Ming-Yu. (2008). Bian dao yi shi dui ji lu pian gu shi hua chuang zuo de ying xiang [The impact of directing on the creation of narratives in documentaries ]. Journal of Chifeng College, 29(7), [Text in Li, Yu-Hong. (2005). Ji shi ren wu she ying de guan nian yu shou fa--yi dian ying ji lu pian de guan dian fa xiang-shang [The concepts and crafts of portrait photography: a documentary films perspective]. Artist

4 Magazine, 5, [Text in Lin, Sylvie. (2005). Zai hu xian shi ma? ji lu pian de zhong zhong xin shi jiao [Do You Believe in Reality?]. Dian Ying Xin Shang, 23(2), [Text in Liu, Chang-De, (2011). Cultural Production, Consumption, and Labor: The Influences of "Being the Public Sector's Subcontracting Works" on Taiwanese Documentaries. Mass Communication Research, 107, [Text in Liu, Lei & Chang, Huaihao. (2008). Xin shi qi zhong guo ji lu pian de duo yuan zou xiang [The diversity of documentary film making in a new era in China]. Southeast Communication, 11, [Text in Lu, Feiyi. (1998). Ji lu pian de zai xian ji shu yu guan nian zhi zhuan bian [The transition of the representational techniques in documentaries]. Communication Research Newsletter, 14, [Text in Minichiello, V., Aroni, R., Timewell, E., & Alexander, L. (1995). In-depth Interviewing (2nd ed.). South Melbourne: Longman. Neve, T. O. (2003). Right Questions to Capture Knowledge. Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 1(1), Nichols, B. (2001). Introduction of documentary (1 st ed.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Nickols, F. (2000). The tacit and explicit nature of knowledge, the knowledge in knowledge management. In J. W. Cortada & J. A. Woods (Eds.). The knowledge management yearbook (pp.12-21). Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann. Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge-creating company: how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. New York: Oxford University Press. Polanyi, M. (1962). Personal knowledge: towards a post-critical philosophy. Chicago: Corr. Ed edition. Popper, K. R. (1972). Objective knowledge: An evolutionary approach. New York : Oxford University Press. Rabiger, M. (1998). Zhi zuo ji lu pian [Documentary production](wang, Ya- Wei, Trans.). Taipei, Taiwan: Yuan-Liou Publishing Co. (Original work published 1997) Sternberg, R. J., Wagner, R. K., Williams, W. M., & Horvath, J. A. (1995). Testing common sense. American Psychologist, 50(11), Taylor, H. (2007). Tacit Knowledge: Conceptualizations and Operationalizations. International Journal of Knowledge Management, 3(3), Tsai, Chin-Tong. (2007). Ji lu pian zuo wei yi zhong yan jiu fang fa: cong ji lu pian zhi zuo dao ji lu pian xue [Documentaries as a research method: from the production to the study of documentaries]. Yi Shu Guan Dian, 32, 7-8. [Text in Wang, Weitsy. (2003). Documentary in Development Based Upon the Six Modes of Documentary Production Preduction Prescribed by Bill Nichols. Journal of Radio & Television Studies, 20, [Text in Wu, Bao-Han. (1999). Dian shi ji lu pian zhi zuo [The production of TV documentaries ]. Peijing: Culture & Arts Press. [Text in Yuan, Ming-Shu. (2008). Externalizing Tacit Knowledge in Independent Documentary Film Production via Pattern Language. Journal of Library and Information Studies, 6(1/2), [Text in Yuan, Ming-Shu. (2010, July). Du li ji lu pian gong zuo zhe zhi zhuan ye zhi shi diao cha chu tan [The preliminary investigation of the professional knowledge of independent documentary films makers]. Paper presented at the 10th Conference of China & Taiwan Information and Library Science Forum, Nanjing, China. [Text in Yuan, M. S. (2012). The Research of Tacit Knowledge Extraction on Experts of Different Domains. The 13th European Conference on Knowledge Management (ECKM) Poster, Universidad Politéica de Cartagena, Spain. Zhang, Y. (2004). Styles, subjects, and special points of view: a study of contemporary Chinese independent documentary. New Cinemas, 2(2), Zhang, Zhao Wei. (2005). Ji lu pian de she hui guan [The sociological perspectives in documentaries]. Retrieved October 14, 2012, from [Text in Zheng, Wei. (2003). Ji lu yu biao shu: zhong guo da lu yi jiu jiu ling nian

5 dai yi lai de du li ji lu pian [Documentation and representation: the development of independent documentaries in China since 1990]. Du Shu, 10, [Text in 214